Pump it up…

One of the coolest things about living in Copenhagen by far is that design is just about everywhere. Literally. Including the gas station…

Came across this station while walking back home from the beach, and turns out that it was designed by Arne Jacobsen. Yep, that same guy that did all those chairs (and look at that roof line and you’ll see the familiarity straight off) also did a gas station…in our neighborhood no less so it suddenly made a mundane thing like filling up the car a pretty interesting outing.

The gas station – or I suppose more correctly, the “petrol station” (sounds a bit more upmarket that way, n’est pas?) opened in 1936, originally as a Texaco station. The canopy (or “mushroom” as apparently it is called in Danish) is concrete. From what I’ve read, providing some type of shade or shelter for drivers tanking up was kind of a new things for the times. Needless to say, that canopy is what remains still most striking about the building…

The former garage has been converted into a little coffee bar and ice cream shop as I imagine there are just as many architectural gawkers of this gas station as people gassing up -though it still functions that way. Not a bad place for an ice cream soda if you ask me…

And of course if you have a classic gas station, you can expect to see some classic wheels. Generally, I’ve been amazed at how many classic cards, especially American or Eastern European ones I’ve seen in this city. This is has got to be second in line after Havana for car restoration…someone once told me that people keep cars for as long as they can as new cars are taxed so heavily (currently 160% going up to 200% next year)…

And if the gas station alone weren’t cool enough, you have to admit, they picked a pretty plum place to put it. It’s right on the Strandvejen, which is the road that runs up the coast out of Copenhagen, so right behind the station is a collection of the rowing club houses and a gorgeous little harbor behind it. Pretty little place to fill up the gas tank, right?

So cool. Love the design of this station. That's one of my favorite things about Europe; they seem to transform even the most mundane things like gas stations, mini-marts, and even McDonald's into something just a bit more "fancy".

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